THROUGH HIGHS AND LOWS Sermon preached at South Church, New Britain September 23, 2018 Jane H. Rowe Genesis 39:1-23 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian s house for Joseph s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph s charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. But he refused and said to his master s wife, Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment, saying, Lie with me! But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside. Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside. 1
When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, This is the way your servant treated me, he became enraged. And Joseph s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph s care, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper. When I was a young adult, and not very happy with the circumstances of my life, someone gave me a book called Bloom Where You Are Planted. It spoke about making the best of the situation you are in, and trusting that God is going to bring something good out of it even if you can t see it at the time. Of course, there are secular sayings that get at the same idea. One of my favorites is, When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Or as singer Amy Winehouse said, Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen. But from the faith perspective that I embrace, such optimism is based not only in our ability to handle the cards we are dealt, but in who God is and how God works, and that is a stronger foundation for hope. Joseph had that foundation. He was raised in a family that told stories of God s faithfulness through the highs and lows of their life journeys. He would have heard stories of God s faithfulness from his father Jacob and mother Rachel, from his grandfather Isaac and grandmother Rebekah, and he would have heard them tell stories about his great grandfather Abraham and great grandmother Sarah. Over and over he heard how God had called this family into a special covenant, and that God had a plan to bless all the nations of the world through them. From a very young age, Joseph would have heard the phrase, The Lord was with us, as they told about the triumphs, the tragedies and the trials they had experienced. Parents, take note: It s good to tell those family stories to your children, because you never know what they are going to have to face in life. Little could Jacob have known the trials that his son Joseph would have to face, but I m sure those family stories played a big role in shaping the young boy into a man who could hold onto his faith that God would be with him through it all. 2
In his early life, Joseph had some amazing high points. His father, Jacob, did not hide the fact that Joseph was the favorite of his twelve sons. He gave him a long and beautiful coat that set Joseph apart from his brothers not a great parenting strategy because of course it made them very jealous. On top of that, Joseph had a couple of remarkable dreams one in which sheaves of wheat bowed down before him, and another in which the sun, moon and stars were bowing down to him. Telling this to his brothers made them even more furious. It led to their scheme to throw him into a pit, and then sell him off to slave traders. From favored son to slave talk about a sudden loss of status! But as the biblical narrator reminds us repeatedly, the Lord was with Joseph. The slave traders sold him to Potiphar, a high-level officer in Pharaoh s court. It didn t take long for Potiphar to recognize that Joseph was especially talented, and that whatever he did, he did well. So Potiphar gave Joseph more and more responsibility, until Joseph was in charge of all Potiphar s affairs and Potiphar didn t have to worry about anything. Except for his wife, that is. Apparently, Potiphar s wife couldn t take her eyes off Joseph. He was, as one translation puts it, well-built, and his success made him attractive as well. She was a woman of wealth and privilege, who was used to getting whatever she wanted, so of course she assumed that she could have him. As we heard in the story, she was wrong. When she saw that she could not get him into her bedroom either by seduction or by force, she retaliated by accusing him of attempted rape. When word got to her husband, Potiphar flew into a rage and could easily have had Joseph killed on the spot. Instead, he locked him up in jail. Joseph, the trusted advisor was now a shackled prisoner--talk about another precipitous fall into the pit of darkness. But even there, the Lord was with him. Through highs and lows, Joseph held onto that promise. He was not going to let prison define him. He remembered his dreams he sensed there was a purpose for his life. Once again, his leadership abilities quickly became apparent, and soon the chief jailer had put Joseph in charge over the other prisoners. Once again, Joseph had become a trusted advisor to the top guy. But he was still in prison, through no fault of his own. He was in prison precisely because of his refusal to do the wrong thing. As one person commented, For a guy whom we are told repeatedly God favored, Joseph had a pretty hard life. 3
It didn t take us long at Bible study on Wednesday to come up with examples of people today who have been unjustly accused or imprisoned. Christians, Buddhists and Muslims in China, all now experiencing the Communist crackdown on religious practice. People being detained at the southern border of our country. Young men of color being arrested for crimes that young white men get away with. These were some of the examples that were raised by those sitting around our table. The story I want to tell has amazing parallels to the Joseph story. It s a story some of you may have already heard or read in the newspaper; I m sharing from the account in the Hartford Courant from January 16 th this year. I think it s a story all of us who worship here in the heart of New Britain ought to know. In 1986, Mark Schand was 21 years old and living in Hartford with his two little boys and his wife, Mia, who was expecting their third child. Mark had a dream of opening a clothing store. But his plans were cut short when he was arrested on a charge of murder after a young woman was shot dead outside a Springfield bar. His wife and others told investigators that Mark had been in Hartford at the time of the shooting, but still they put him in jail to be held for months until his trial. The following year, he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Mia drove to visit him almost every week, even after he was moved to a prison in Walpole, Massachusetts, almost two hours from her home in Windsor. Mark and I were meant to be together, she said. I knew he was innocent from Day One. We told the boys, Your father is here for something he didn t do. Mark Schand did everything positive he could in prison. He worked out, he sought out healthy foods and he maintained a garden. Other prisoners lost interest in their plots of land and turned them over to Mark, so that his garden grew larger. I tried not to become an inmate, Mark told the reporter. I kept the focus on life on the other side of the fence. I didn t want to be a tougher, bitter inmate because if I did, I probably would still be there. It was through the efforts of two attorneys, John and Linda Thompson, and an organization called Centurion Ministries, that Mark Schand was able to get a retrial in 2013. After 27 years in prison, his murder charge was dismissed, and he walked out a free man. His children were ages 28, 29, and 30 when he got out. I lost that time of being a father, he said. Nothing can pay me back for that. But with the $450,000 compensation he received a year ago from the state of Massachusetts, Mark began dreaming again of starting a business. He actually had never lost that dream. He talked about it all through his years of imprisonment. 4
But now he could actually do it. One day, on a visit to see his father in New Britain, he saw an empty storefront and recognized that there was a lack of healthy eating options downtown, so he decided to open his shop here on West Main Street, right next to Jimmy s Smoke Shop, making the kind of food he had come to love. Sweetwater Juice Bar and Deli specializes in fruit and veggie smoothies and deli sandwiches, all made to order with fresh ingredients. If you ask me, it was a welcome addition to the dining options downtown. I think that s a story we ought to know, not just because Sweetwater makes great food that I can highly recommend, but because it s the story of a man persevering through some terrible, unjust circumstances, never letting those circumstances define him but holding onto his dream and his character. It s a modern-day Joseph story. I think we ought to tell that story to ourselves and others who wonder how they can get through the challenges of life. And I think we ought to do our best to support and partner with people like Mark Schand who are committed to living out their dream of contributing positively to our city. As we seek to be a church faithfully living out its call in the heart of the city, for the heart of the city, we can celebrate that there are others who share that mission, and that we all have something unique and important to contribute. Through highs and lows, God is with us, making even of the most terrible of injustices something that will bring good to the world. Persevering with faith makes all the difference. Thanks be to God. Sources: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/bad_situation Commentary on Genesis 39:1-23 by Jacqueline E. Lapsley in Working Preacher for September 23, 2018. New Britain s New Smoothie Shop a Fresh Start for Falsely Convicted Man, by Don Stacum, Hartford Courant, Jan. 16, 2018 5